One more night. Anna could do this. She glanced around the cave as the men worked to reseal the opening, blocking them off from the outside. The women milled about, some bringing water and food to the men, and others creating small fires. A slight draft tickled Anna’s skin and spiraled the smoke into tiny billows that sucked through a small hole in the ceiling. A naturally occurring ventilation system. Amazing.
The older children helped their parents, while the younger Maori gathered the twigs into neat piles. A few chased flies that had come in before the exit had closed. They led such a simple but backward existence, men doing the labor while the women cooked. They couldn’t possibly live like this when they were back in their normal lives.
Anna couldn’t help but wonder if this was like playtime to them, like how people dressed up and acted out parts in Renaissance fairs back home. When this was all over, would they all return to the twenty-first century?
“Comfortable?” Nanna asked, easing to the floor beside her.
“I guess.” She didn’t want to admit that she still hurt from sleeping on the hard ground the evening before. Especially since the older woman never complained, and she hadn’t had the luxury of a dragon wing to keep her warm all night.
Nanna’s gaze carried across the room, where Puff allowed the younger children to climb on him. “Our dragon seems to have won the hearts of our next generation. It’s encouraging.”
“What do you mean?”
She shrugged. “I’m not as young as I used to be. I probably won’t be here for the next Seventeen Year, but they will be.” She pointed at Puff and his throng of young playmates. “More importantly, he will be.” Nanna watched for another moment, smiling. “Those little girls will remember this day: his kindness, how warm and comforting he was.” She grinned. “In seventeen years, when they are young women, they will probably fight each other to get on the platform, hoping to catch his eye.”
Anna’s hands fisted and her stomach clenched. A sudden desire to swat all those little girls away from her dragon enveloped her.
Wait.
Her dragon? When had he become her dragon, and why did she care? She folded her arms. Any of those little girls could have him if that meant she could go home.
Anna took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. She was going home. Puff had set her free. The Maori would do whatever he asked without question. They just had to wait until it was safe to make the journey. There was nothing to fear anymore.
One of the little girls fell off Puff’s side and slammed to the ground. She howled until Puff nudged her. The little girl jumped to her feet and hugged him.
Funny how none of them were afraid of an animal so much larger than them. Didn’t any of their history show dragons killing people? If not, weren’t they afraid of all those teeth?
Puff sneezed, ruffling his mane. The children giggled and crowded him. Nik stood close, smiling as the dragon seemed to struggle under the kids’ weight. The Kotahi’s expression belayed that the dragon was only pretending to be thwarted, and the children loved every second.
But they were young. Would any of them remember this day, or would meeting the dragon settle into the reaches of their memories, easing back into the realm of myth passed down from generation to generation, until Puff was nothing but a bedtime story told to their grandchildren? Anna looked away, hoping to banish the thought.
Throughout the cave, the Maori churned in constant movement, as if they’d done this a thousand times and everyone knew their task until meals were prepared, eaten, and cleared away.
Anna sat, rapt as Puff stood and allowed the children to defeat him over and over again until her cheeks hurt from smiling. He truly was a gentle giant, despite his small size among the other dragons.
Pops approached and shooed the children away. A collective “Awwwww.” rang through the chamber. The old man whispered a few words to his grandson, who glanced in Anna’s direction before following Puff toward the back of the chamber and into a dark passage.
Where were they going?
Nanna grabbed the paper plate on the ground beside Anna. “Did you have enough to eat?”
“Yes, thanks. It was great.” Well, as great as burnt rabbit and the meat from whatever an arapawa was could be. She’d never eaten anything off a stick before, though. The experience was definitely memorable.
Limping slightly, Pops approached. She hadn’t remembered a limp earlier, but she had to give the old man credit. The past two days had taken a toll on Anna, and she was less than half his age.
“How has your evening been, Miss Anna?” Pops asked.
“Great, thanks. You’ve all been so hospitable.” Hospitable, even though she refused to be their dragon queen. Every time she turned she expected someone to act out, shout at her, or do something else to force her to their way of thinking. Every single Maori had been overly kind to her, though. She felt at home here, like she truly belonged among them.
“The Great One has moved into the cathedral for Brigham Solstice.” Pops looked toward the dark hallway at the back of the chamber. “This is a sacred time for the Draconi. Tonight, when the moon is at its apex, the dragons will be at the height of their fertility.” He turned to her. “It would be appropriate if his queen joined him.”
Anna’s veins iced. “But he let me go. He said I don’t have to.”
“You may not be returning to Dragon Mount with him, but that makes you no less his queen.” He settled on the floor beside her, opposite his wife. “He chose you. That hasn’t changed.”
Anna’s gaze darted to the walled-off exit again, as if her sudden panic might make the giant boulders blocking her escape somehow disappear.
Nanna’s hand covered hers. “The Great One asks nothing of you but your company, I’m sure.” She glared at her husband, then back to the ground. “He has a good heart, our dragon. A shame really. He would have been a wonderful king.”
“Enough of that, Carolyn,” Pops said. “That door has been closed.”
“But it’s still the truth. Anyway…” She turned to Anna and smiled. “No one is asking you to consummate anything with him in dragon form. Goodness knows he wouldn’t ask that of you either, but tonight is as holy a night for the Draconi as it is for the Maori. He is alone here, even among so many. He probably would appreciate company other than my Nikau.” She cupped her hand over Anna’s ear and whispered. “Nikky is a good boy, but he tends to be a bit boring at times.”
Anna laughed. These two reminded her so much of her own grandparents. The Maori were all nice, wonderful people despite the dragons and caves and the insanity surrounding the Seventeen Year. She wished she’d met them all under different circumstances.
She looked toward the dark corridor. “What’s back there?”
Nanna stood and held out her hand to Anna. “Like we said, the cathedral room. Large rooms are common in caverns like these, but ours is special. That is why the Maori walled off these caves centuries ago.” She took Anna’s hand. “It is nearly time. I think the Great One would be overjoyed to experience the solstice with you.”
Anna took her hand. As long as no one expected her to spread her legs, she supposed she could spend a little time alone with Puff. She wasn’t much into spiritual things, but caves had always fascinated her. She couldn’t imagine any cavern room being as spectacular as the cathedral room in Luray, Virginia. She was always willing to bask in nature’s artistry though, no matter how ornate.
Nanna and Pops walked her to the beginning of the dark hallway and handed her a flashlight. As she grasped the cool cylinder, she noticed the Maori had fallen silent. Even the children stared at her.
Why? Did they expect her to do something? Was there some kind of ceremony to this Solstice-thing that she didn’t know about? She hoped she wasn’t breaking some kind of ancient custom by turning her back on them and walking into the dark, but they couldn’t really expect the foreign girl to have any idea what was expected of her.
She clicked on her flashlight. The cave hallway cut a hard left, then angled down and to the right. She felt along the cool wall until the passage opened up to a brightly lit chamber. A spectacular display of white, glossy flowstone cascaded down the far wall and disappeared into a crevice in the floor. The massive space echoed with her single step. The sound seemed an unwanted intrusion on the ancient room’s silence.
Puff and Nik turned toward her. The dragon jumped to his feet and galloped in place three times.
“He’s glad to see you.” Nik held out his hand, helping her down prehistoric steps carved into the rock floor.
Puff nuzzled her neck. She giggled. He really was as sweet as the old couple thought he was.
Their lantern flickered, casting a dancing light across the flowstones. A trickling sound filled the cave, and Anna realized it was a touch more humid down here than it had been in the entrance chamber above.
She lit her flashlight and cast its beam toward the back of the cave, where a slow running stream seemed to cut across the floor and disappear down the same fissure the flowstone emptied into.
“Wow,” she whispered.
Puff inched closer, pressing his folded, uninjured wing against her.
“He says he’s happy you joined us.”
Puff’s translucent scales picked up the light reflecting off the water. Seeing him shimmer like that, it wasn’t hard to tell why his kind were called crystal dragons.
“So,” Anna said. “What’s so special about this room? Is it the river?”
“I’m not sure,” Nik said. “Pops told me to wait for the exact moment of the solstice, and turn off the lights.” He glanced at his phone screen. “Which should be in a few minutes.”
They’d done that at Luray when she was a kid. The guide called it “the black light.” Since there’s no natural light inside a cave, they were left in complete darkness. Anna couldn’t even see her fingers wiggling in front of her face. She’d been terrified when the guide didn’t flick the lights back on right away. She hoped this solstice-thing wasn’t anything that silly.
“Time’s up.” Nik motioned to her flashlight. “Are you ready?”
She nodded, shutting her light off.
Nik reached for their lamp. “Here we go.”
A single click basked them in complete darkness. She tensed, closing her eyes, before Nik gasped beside her.
“Whoa,” he whispered.
Puff growled something.
Anna gaped in the darkness, or lack thereof. The cave had come alive around them. It was as if they’d been shot into space and floated amongst the stars. No matter where she turned, small spots of light greeted her, then blinked out. Some twitched, sparkled and glowed, leaving the entire room illuminated by a slight greenish hue.
“Wh-what is this?”
“Glow worms.” Nik’s face remained turned toward the ceiling. “But I’ve never seen them on South Island outside of Te Anau, and never in these quantities.”
As they stared, the lights increased, as if these strange creatures congregated for their pleasure.
Puff flipped his mane away from Anna’s face.
“He wants to know if you like it.”
“He’s kidding, right? This is amazing.”
A green shadow cast across Nik’s face. “He says the worms have different colors where he comes from, but there are not as many. They only swarm like this for a few days during Brigham Solstice.”
Anna couldn’t imagine what a million multicolored lights would look like. It must rival Christmas.
Nik cleared his throat. “Puff is a little frustrated. He wishes he could talk to you with his real voice.”
Anna blinked away the lights and turned to Puff. Those deep, large, somehow human eyes drew her in, encompassing her with just his gaze. What was behind those eyes? Could a dragon really be capable of love, like he said, or was this something else?
She turned to Nik. “Then let him. Give him your voice like you did earlier today.”
His lips thinned. “I didn’t give him my voice. He took it.”
And from the tone of his words, that was not something he wanted to experience again. The poor dragon did look frustrated with his Kotahi, though. If Nik really could feel Puff’s emotions, he’d have to understand that.
Anna rustled up her prettiest smile. “Just for a few minutes.”
Nik raised a brow before his attention drew back to Puff.
“Please?” Anna entreated. She really needed to know what was going on in the dragon’s head, and she didn’t want to worry that something might be lost in translation.
Nik pursed his lips before he backed into the shadows, leaving Puff and Anna alone within the growing spectacle of dancing lights.
Anna eased down to the damp, rocky floor. Puff settled beside her and placed his talon on her right hand before he drew it away.
“No,” she said. “It’s fine. I know you won’t hurt me.”
“I’m sorry I have to touch you with a claw.”
Anna’s gaze flicked back to where Nik stood in the shadows, before her gaze drew back to Puff. She had to remember that the voice she heard, while Nik’s, was really now her dragon.
The lights above sparkled in Puff’s eyes, adding to his brilliance. “It’s not a claw,” she said. “It’s your hand.”
“I have a real hand. I wish I could show you.”
“I’ve seen it. You held me in the tavern, remember?”
Puff exhaled a gust of scentless smoke. She wondered if that was the dragon version of a laugh. “I suppose you wish you never walked in there.”
“Not at all. I mean, yeah, I spent half the night terrified.” She motioned to the glowing ceiling. “But this, you, and everything else has been amazing.”
He spun from the lights and looked at her. “I want to touch you. I want…” He turned away and shook his head.
Anna grabbed his muzzle and turned him back to her. “Hey, you’re sweet, you know that? You may be the sweetest guy I’ve ever met, and I’m incredibly honored that you chose me.” She ran her palm along his cheek. His scales were surprisingly soft. “It’s nothing personal. I just want someone human.”
He tensed beneath her touch. “I can be human. You’ve seen me.”
Anna looked away.
Yes, she had. His human form, Joe, wasn’t quite what she’d normally look for in a guy. She’d always dreamed of a tall, dark stranger. Maybe not so tall and dark and strange as Connor, but she’d had a vision of a knight in shining armor since she was a kid.
Andrew’s easy smile filled her thoughts. She’d thought he fit the bill. She’d even worn that cheap ring he gave her until he could afford a diamond.
Anna grimaced. Fairytales were pretty hard to live up to when you lived in the real world.
She didn’t need prince charming, but how about a nice strong guy to take care of her? That sounded primeval, but that’s what she’d always wished for. Gaston, without the asshole mentality. Connor, without the Connor-ness. But every guy she’d met who looked the part acted the part as well.
Then there was Joe—a short, pale, thin counterpart to Connor’s dark alpha-male-ness. He’d never stand out from the crowd, other than maybe to be stared at over his nearly-white hair.
When the fixture had fallen from the ceiling, though, Joe had moved with incredible speed and grace, catching the frame before it fell on Anna. He’d held up the wooden contraption as if it weighed only a few pounds, while the bartender seemed barely able to budge it.
She considered the deeply etched reptilian muscles beneath the shimmering scales on Puff’s shoulders. Looks could be deceiving, she supposed.
But none of that changed the truth that Joe was a dragon. A human and a reptile, the whole idea was insane. Even if Puff could shift into Joe once he was healed, that didn’t change the fact that in reality, he was another species. It was just weird.
Her thoughts drifted back to Connor, a lust dragon.
Had her sister really slept with him? In his human form, she could hardly blame Sybil. He was gorgeous, sure of himself, and sexy in a sleazy kind of way… exactly what her sister liked in a cheap screw.
Did Sybil even know she was sleeping with a dragon? If she did, was she okay with all this, or was Connor really controlling her mind and making her forget about the aerial battle, her falling, and him snatching her out of the sky?
Anna covered her face. All this was a bit much for her to take.
Puff moved closer. “I didn’t mean to upset you. I told you I would let you go home, and I meant it.” He looked up into the twinkling lights. “I’m glad that we got to share this, though. It will be a fond memory.”
Yes. Yes, it would.
Anna tried to remember another time when she’d sat in the dark with a guy who hadn’t tried to grope her. In the past few months, several friends had set her up with men they knew; but even on first dates those guys had expected too much.
She supposed there were plenty of girls like her sister out there, ready to lay it all on the table, or the bed, so to speak. Maybe that was normal, now. Maybe Anna was the strange one, looking for a connection rather than just sex.
She leaned her head on Puff’s hide, and smiled as his warmth rose and fell with each breath. Why she expected him to be cold, like an iguana, she didn’t know. He was the warmest, most sincere creature she’d ever met.
Nanna was right. He would have been a great king.
Puff shifted slightly, and his wing rose and gathered around her. “Is this okay?”
She smiled settling against him as she had last night. “Yeah. Actually, it’s pretty nice.”
“You’re warm, for a human.”
Anna laughed. “I was thinking the same about you.”
He craned his neck to look at her, before touching his nose to hers. “I know humans think differently from dragons, but I hope you understand how important you are to me. Even when we part, a portion of my soul will remain with you, forever.”
Part of her wanted to push away and tell him he was being ridiculous. He was moving too fast. That this kind of connection was impossible between two people, especially two who had just met.
Instead, she stared into his eyes, soaking in the sparkling lights dancing around them. A ball wadded in her throat and twisted. Somehow, she understood what he meant, as if part of her reached out to this dragon, needing to cling to him as if her soul required his presence—like she’d be lost if he didn’t wrap his wings around her and protect her from everything that ever tried to harm her.
But again, that was ridiculous, and she allowed the thought to drift up and away, lost to the flickering lights above.
What she wanted was a pipe dream, and pipe dreams, like everything else, exploded.
She leaned closer, and Puff slipped his thick, scaled arm around her. His touch felt strong, sure, and oddly enough, human. She lost herself in his warmth, closing her eyes to the sparkling lights, and shutting out everything other than the intense heat seeping through her skin and warming her soul.
She knew this was more than she should ask for, that sharing this one fleeting moment wasn’t fair to either of them, but she cuddled closer, accepted his embrace, and lost herself within the perfection he offered.
Just this once.